Chess Broadcasting Gets Professional

The short list for this edition of Video Friday was dominated by clips from the Wijk aan Zee closed tournament and the Gibraltar open tournament, which overlapped each other. For example:-

• Interview with Wesley So: winner at the 2017 Tata Steel Chess Tournament
• Interview with Hikaru Nakamura: winner at Gibraltar Chess 2017

As good as these are, the best was from GBC News, aka the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation.

Prizes awarded at Tradewise Chess Festival - 03 Feb 17 (4:00) • 'Gibraltar’s Tradewise Chess champions for 2017 have praised the high calibre of the festival, which is in its fifteenth year.'

The description continued,

The USA’s Hikaru Nakamura, who won the championship for the third year running, and women’s champion, Ju Wenjun from China, were both presented their awards at a dinner at the Caleta hotel last night.

At some time over the last decade, chess broadcasting jumped to the professional level. Kudos to everyone involved.